Hannu Lintu & Andrè Schuen

“Historically, many symphonists have been inspired by important events affecting their lives, and perhaps occasionally their choice of the symphonic form was dictated by extramusical events,” wrote John Corigliano of his first Symphony. He was referring to the AIDS epidemic that took many of his friends, but it is not difficult to imagine this powerful work as also reflecting today’s ongoing tragedies.
The song cycle by Gustav Mahler is still set in the innocent world of folk poetry, where a wayfarer sings serenades tinged with yearning and love. A critic at the premiere conducted by Hannu Lintu in Chicago in 2021 detected elements of Mahler and Sibelius in Magnus Lindberg’s Serenades.